Non-manliness of Match Game

Sometimes you just gotta laugh.

An aggrieved barfly sent an email to the local paper complaining that GSN is on TV at his favorite tavern. What happened to having ESPN or something manly on the tube? In particular, the bar patron was really p.o.ed about the reruns of the 1970s Match Game. He didn't think the show was funny, and he suggested that it was on GSN only because it's the one game show from the era which survives on tape.

The local paper's TV critic responded rather grumpily, too. He said that GSN started out by running lots of "ancient" game shows because nobody else wanted them. He admitted that GSN has managed to stay in business - well, yeah, that's pretty obvious - and that the network now runs some newer shows and even some originals. He then mentioned the current ABC version of Match Game and implied that GSN may be trying to play off it.

The critic and barfly are obviously not older-is-better game show fans...or any kind of game show fans. I hate to think what either of them would say about Buzzr. They're also wrong about a few things. Match Game is really freakin' funny unless you have zero sense of humor, which is a possibility for the grousing barfly. And it's hardly the only game show from its era to have survived on tape (see the aforementioned Buzzr). And GSN was running tons of Match Game long before the ABC version came along.

By the way, who says ESPN is so manly, anyway? Lots of online commenters rip the network for being too snowflaky and p.c.